342 



AUSTRALASIA. 



a grass whose seeds are harmless for horses' and horned cattle, but fatal to 

 sheep. Sandalwood, formerly a chief source of wealth, has nearly disappeared, 

 and the finest forest trees still surviving are the dammara, araucaria, and 

 ebony. 



As in most other oceanic lands the fauna is extremely poor, the only indigenous 

 mammals being a rat and a large variety of bat. The only reptile is a snake very 



Fig. 145. — Native of Mare, Loyalty Isles. 



common in the marshy districts, and the only noxious vermin are a centipede, a 

 spider, and a scorpion. Of the 107 species of birds hitherto observed by naturalists 

 several are common to New Zealand, to Australia, and even the Sunda Islands ; but 

 some are peculiar to New Caledonia, as, for instance, the Kagu [rhinnchetus juhatus) , 

 which shows certain affinities both to the heron and the stork, but which, like the 

 aptéryx and some other local species, is already threatened with extinction. 



